President Jacob Zuma officially opened Unit Six of the Medupi Power Station in Lephalale on Sunday.
This has been labelled as a move that marks a momentous milestone for Eskom and the country.
Medupi is the first power station to be built by the democratically elected government since 1994.
Construction in the six units coal fired power plant commenced in 2007 and is expected to be finished in the year 2019.
Once completed, the power station will be the fourth largest coal-fired plant and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world. Unit Six of the Medupi first operated partially in March this year and has been producing electricity occasionally while undergoing tests.
During this period Unit Six has been able to reduce pressure on the national electricity system, helping to either avoid load shedding altogether or minimising its severity. The official opening of Unit Six comes after the country has been experiencing less load shedding in the past few weeks. It gives residents hope that they will be experiencing even less power cuts in the near future.
Eskom acting Chief Executive Brian Molefe said, “The commercial operation of Unit Six of the Medupi Power Station is a critical milestone in our effort to build new generating capacity to meet South Africa’s rising electricity demand.
“Our capacity expansion programme, which is the largest in our history, will increase our generation capacity by 17 384MW, transmission lines by 9 756km and substation capacity by 42 470MVA once completed in the next five years.”
The completion of the station has been pushed back due to delays resulting from labour unrests. Early this year contract workers downed tools and embarked on a strike over pay and living conditions.
